At first listening, President Obama’s grand pivot #19 to jobs speech before a collection of human props at Knox College was a nothingburger. It included no new ideas. It scolded his political opponents for having ideas of their own. It included some talk about the economy being “poised” for growth when it has actually been poisoned against it. It included the usual Obama nod to empty, lofty rhetoric. He likes to talk about the ocean:

One of America’s greatest writers, Carl Sandburg, born right here in Galesburg over a century ago — (applause) — he saw the railroads bring the world to the prairie, and then the prairie sent out its bounty to the world. And he saw the advent of new industries, new technologies, and he watched populations shift. He saw fortunes made and lost. And he saw how change could be painful — how a new age could unsettle long-held customs and ways of life. But he had that frontier optimism, and so he saw something more on the horizon. And he wrote, “I speak of new cities and new people. The past is a bucket of ashes. Yesterday is a wind gone down, a sun dropped in the west. There is only an ocean of tomorrows, a sky of tomorrows.”

Well, America, we’ve made it through the worst of yesterday’s winds. We just have to have the courage to keep moving forward. We’ve got to set our eyes on the horizon. We will find an ocean of tomorrows. We will find a sky of tomorrows for the American people and for this great country that we love.

And as far as policy goes, that means…? Let’s leave Illinois and go to the beach? There’s a movie about a sky captain and a world of tomorrow, but that world was a horror thanks to one man’s selfish malevolent vision.

Obama’s speech also included one of the worst lines ever to grate in a presidential address. During an Elizabeth Warren-esque riff on how the nation’s infrastructure is vital, and against which few argue, Obama tried to go bipartisan. He just ended up going low.

And by the way, this isn’t a Democratic idea. Republicans built a lot of stuff. This is the Land of Lincoln. Lincoln was all about building stuff — first Republican President.

Yes, Abraham Lincoln, the self-educated lawyer, the 16th president, the man who freed the slaves and elevated Grant and saved the union and had the band play “Dixie” after Lee’s surrender, was “all about building stuff.” The image created is of Abe with his stovepipe hat and beard noodling over a set of Lincoln Logs. Barack Obama must believe that he has to demean his predecessors in order to elevate himself. So he takes American rhetoric from the Gettysburg Address to “Lincoln was all about building stuff.”

Rhetorical quality or lack thereof aside, Obama’s address was devious. After the IRS targeting scandal broke on May 10, Obama was at first silent. Five days later, as the scandal built, Obama had to speak so he held forth in the White House and announced that he was “outraged” by the scandal. He said it was unacceptable and he vowed to get to the bottom of it. He told the American people that he had demanded and accepted the resignation of the IRS’ acting commissioner, Steven Miller. That act was devious; Miller’s term was up the next month. Obama’s alleged outrage must not have been all that, because on July 24 in his speech on the economy, he slipped in this line.

But with this endless parade of distractions and political posturing and phony scandals, Washington has taken its eye off the ball. And I am here to say this needs to stop. (Applause.) This needs to stop.

“Phony scandals.” Obama declared that the IRS targeting of his political critics no longer outrages him, just as the scandal crept up into the agency’s chief counsel’s office. It’s no longer an outrage, though we have not yet gotten to the bottom of it. It’s “phony,” as is Fast and Furious, Benghazi, the terrible rollout of Obamacare, the EPA’s war on coal and its secret collusion with activist groups in violation of the Clean Air Act. All of that is just so much phony distraction and posturing. The Obama administration spies on the media — phony scandal. No answers for the families of the dead of Benghazi — phony distraction. Not real. Body counts, leaving Americans behind to die — fake and fake. If the IRS scandal was real, well, the FBI would have interviewed the victims by now, wouldn’t it? It hasn’t, so the scandal is phony. You’re crazy for thinking that it’s real.

Barack Obama is gaslighting America. He is striving to make any focus on his real scandals appear nutty, out of bounds, insane, and illegitimate.

Despite the pretzel logic employed by your comment, it still doesn't imbue any rhetorical luster to the banality of "Lincoln was all about building stuff." Your effort to defend Obama's underwhelming non-tribute to one of our greatest Presidents looks like trying to put "lipstick on a pig."

Obama came across as a Communist -- proposing a centralized, government and a controlled economy. Even the duration of his speech -- over an hour -- reminded me of commie tyrants of old with the captive audiences. i wonder what happens when the U.S. economy worsens, he'll emulate Fidel Castro and drone on for three hours? He is such a demagogue -- and the college dopes who lap it up, how pathetic.

Don't forget Extortion 17 in all the Obama "phony purple haze" daze. Oh, and another Obama scandal, via the Queen Food Bee, Michelle Obama. Her cushy job at a fancy hospital getting all the indigent and poor out of "their" hospital into a clinic more fitting for their kind.

"Phony Scandals" - this is exactly why the fake birth certificate and draft card should still be in play. Those like me who refuse to drop them and raise them continue to be marginalized. A brilliant ploy by Barry as the majority of consumers (previously known as citizens) are too ignorant, self-centered, or have no moral compass to be able to evaluate the situation reasonably.

Many people accuse Obama of "not governing". I beg to differ; we are being governed by the governors in DC ... the same ones that have given their blessing to ignoring our supreme law; the Constitution. These governors are using the Constitution (interpreting it) to provide people with equal things, and NOT equal rights the way that it is intended. Bass ackwards,totally wrong and unlawful. Based upon his speechat Knox alone; Obama should be impeached for abandoning his oath of office and for promoting and implementing, anti-constitutional (illegal) methods and policies. Samuel Adams said that the ideas of the welfare state and (European socialism) were made unconstitutional:"The utopian schemes of leveling [redistribution of wealth], and a community of goods [central ownership of all means of production and distribution], are as visionary and impracticable as those which vest all property in the Crown. [These ideas] are arbitrary, despotic, and in our own government, unconstitutional." (Wells, Life of samuel Adams, 1:154).

We now have congressional governance which is a double whammy ... Gone is the time for parsing Obama and Congressional elites; we have to hold their feet to the fire and uphold our supreme law, otherwise we are no better than apathetic cowards. Attitude, attitude, attitude!!!!!

After hour upon hour of contemplation on how this man could have garnered 51% of the vote - twice! - I've come to the conclusion that 51% of my fellow American voters are just that G-D'ed dumb. If I had the money I'd move to another country.